Art Spirals

Watercolors from 2006.

Oh, we weren't speaking of veggies? well, we were awhile back, when I showed you my wonderful produce from the organic farm cooperative I belong to. Here in lil' old El Paso, Texas, we're on the cutting edge...as witnessed by the New York Times. Cool article on owning a share in a farm. Ok, our farm, Mysterious Horizons, isn't mentioned there, but everything they talk about, we're doing. and last week, for the first time, we had pasture raised chickens from Brookhaven Farms in Las Cruces. Feels good to support local, organic businesses and have good healthy, tasty food too.

I'm in the second year of belonging to a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture. While there aren't any CSA's in El Paso, YET!, I am lucky to find one in Las Cruces, NM ...considered local when you're in the desert southwest, even though it's 40 miles away. The CSA is Mysterious Horizons and the produce is WONDERFUL! Farmer Jeff comes into our local farmer's market starting in summer through October, so the pickup is easier once that gets into swing. Here's a picture of the first weekly distribution:

Isn't it beautiful?!!

I started another journal, this one for backyard nature sketches, to keep track of the changes in growth. Here are some of the first pages Fig branch and full bush sketch:

From Daily Drawing...

Lily sprouts, rose leaves in bud, ash tree in bud:

From Daily Drawing...

Radishes from our garden in the Reflexions bound journal. Purchased it from ASWExpress, it was a good sale, but i'm not crazy about the paper (70 lb), compared to the HandBook square journal. this paper bleeds through. I like the HandBook a whole lot better, and it's in a square size too, although slightly smaller! These at Dick Blick: http://www.­dickblick.com/zz118/­69/ take wc washes much better, a heavier paper.

From Watercolor 2007

Another in the farmer's market series.

From Watercolor

I think this was an ambitious project for someone at my watercolor level, but I liked how they fit together on the plate. I'm pleased with the butternut squash and the tomatoes, and not pleased with the eggplant or the acorn squash. And the shadows, let's not even TALK about them. I was dissatisfied with them so I kept playing around with colors and washes on top of colors and made mud in several places! but my plan is to paint the eggplant and the acorn squash as separate pieces and see how they go. I sketched this from real life, and photographed it, but then painted from the image on my computer screen as well as a black and white version, also on the screen, and I think I would have enjoyed it more (and perhaps had been more successful) if I painted from real life. what do you think? Has anyone found this to be true?